Safety rail plate



March 8, 1949. J. DEMATTEIS SAFETY RAIL PLATE Filed Dec. 8, 1944 viciz'arz Pema 2292's Patented Mar. 8, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to a safety rail plate set on a crosstie and beneath a rail, having slotted spike openings permitting the plate to slide 1ongitudinally of the rail so that finally the spike heads are located beneath dogs or shields moulded on the plate which prevent an upward movement of the spikes relatively to the plate and consequent loosening of the rail from the tie. The shifting of the plate longitudinally of the rail is accomplished by using a forked impact member to move the plate to position the spike heads beneath the shields. A few blows upon the shank end of the fork with a maul will cause the plate to move to the desired position. Thus vandals can no longer with the same ease wreck a train and do great damage to the latter and the track and endanger human lives.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a top plan view of the intersecting portions of a rail and tie with my plate between them;

Figure 2 is a vertical section on line 2--2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical section on line 33 of Figure 1.

On crosstie T rests a plate I of generally oblong shape having the shorter ends beveled at 2. In the plate are parallel slots 3, shown in offset relation, of a width to permit the passage of the shank of a conventional railroad spike and of a length to permit displacement of the plate in parallelism to its original dotted line portion (Figure 1) to the full line position in which the heads of the spikes driven into the tie are located beneath the top portions 411 of shields 4 shanks 4b of which are formed on or secured to the upper surface of the plate. The movement of the plate can be brought about by the use of a forked member 5 and the conventional spike maul. The tines 5a of the fork in operative position are downwardly inclined towards the plate on either side of the rail R and have angular ends 5b horizontally disposed, when in use, and flattened sufficiently at their free ends for engagement with a longitudinal edge of the plate to be shifted. The upper converging ends of the tines form a portion 50 which straddles the rail and is suificiently flattened upon its outer end to receive blows from a maul. The forked member transmits the blows to the plate and causes it to move from the dotted line position to the full line position in which the spike heads are covered by the top portions of shields 4 and cannot be extracted by vandals bent upon wrecking'a train without first pushing the plate back to its original position.

Parallel ribs 8 extend across the plate 2 as in the manner shown in Figures 1 and 3 so as to prohibit any possibility of the plate rotating or shifting transversely of the rail, thus maintaining the slots properly disposed with respect to the rail flange.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In a device for preventing creeping up or unauthorized extraction of railroad spikes securing a rail to a tie, an elongated tie plate disposed transversely of a rail and between the rail and a tie, said tie plate having elongated, transversely disposed slots located on opposite sides of the base of the rail and each adapted to receive a railroad spike, and said plat-e having integral shields overlying corresponding ends of the slots and opening toward the opposite ends thereof to receive the heads of the spikes when the tie plate is displaced in one direction longitudinally of the rail, said plate having upstanding ribs disposed in alignment with the slots for engaging the side edges of the rail base to cooperate with the spikes to prevent rotation of the plate relatively to the rail and tie.

JULIAN DEMATTEIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 562,960 Hardman June 30, 1896 612,974 Lucas Oct. 25, 1898 844,890 Neubauer Feb. 19, 1907 2,107,131 Schwinn Feb. 1, 1938 2,312,026 Cantrell et a1. Feb. 23, 1943 

